By Fintan O’Toole, includes “In the west of Ireland, they say that if you can see the mountain, it’s going to rain. And if you can’t see the mountain? It’s raining. Ireland may have its troubles, but drought isn’t one of them. Which may be why proposed charges for household water have brought tens of thousands into the streets in protests that have deeply unnerved the political order. If the Irish are finally catching the mood of anti-austerity anger that has been rolling across much of the European Union, it may be a case not so much of the straw that broke the camel’s back as the drop that caused the dam to burst.

Until very recently, the Irish were the eurozone’s champion masochists. Since the banking crash of 2008, they have borne big tax increases, severe cuts in public services, mass unemployment and the large-scale emigration of their children. A 2012 study by the International Monetary Fund found that Ireland was in the “undesirable position” of owning “the costliest banking crisis in advanced economies since at least the Great Depression.” And it was “still ongoing,” imposing a huge public debt and dire fiscal costs on Irish citizens.

… There is a deep sense of injustice at being turned into one of the most indebted nations on earth in order to rescue international bondholders who gambled on rogue Irish banks. There is the way the pain has been inflicted most deeply on the poorest people — the last four government budgets have been regressive, hitting those on the lowest incomes hardest. There is the bitterness of yet again having to export the country’s greatest asset: its talented, highly educated young people. 

… Perhaps, in the end, there’s a religious aspect to it all. The Irish largely accepted austerity because they believed they had sinned and deserved to be punished. But the converse was that, having been good for so long, they should be rewarded. They didn’t expect heaven to be a place where it rains all the time and the angels charge you for a drink of water.”

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